New art supply store to open Friday in Middlebury

Sparrow Art Supply, one of the emerging businesses tapped by Kick Start last summer, will mark its grand opening this Friday.

The Middlebury Studio School’s longtime quest to bring arts education back to the downtown has come to fruition, with the opening of a new branch in the Marble Works complex.

MIDDLEBURY — The Middlebury selectboard on Tuesday unanimously agreed to allocate up to $50,000 in unspent economic development funds to help the Better Middlebury Partnership (BMP) fill vacant downtown storefronts with new businesses. “Kick Start Middleb … (read more)

Middlebury’s $50,000 appropriation to boost the downtown is a needed step in the right direction. The money will seed “Kick Start Middlebury,” an effort to fill downtown storefronts with viable businesses by way of offering $10,000 incentive packages for … (read more)

MIDDLEBURY — The Better Middlebury Partnership (BMP) is looking to beef up its annual budget locally and through contributions from six neighboring communities as it works to help downtown Middlebury rebound from the impacts of a massive rail tunnel proje … (read more)

MIDDLEURY — The Middlebury selectboard on Tuesday unanimously endorsed the community’s new downtown master plan, a 138-page blueprint showing how the core village area could grow and flourish during the next decade and beyond. “It’s exceeded my expectatio … (read more)

MIDDLEBURY — The Middlebury selectboard on Tuesday got its first look at a proposed development playbook for the community’s downtown, a 138-page document that suggests areas where housing, artistic endeavors and a thriving retail/restaurant scene could f … (read more)

MIDDLEBURY — More than four years of planning, dozens of often contentious meetings, a 10-week burst of around-the-clock construction and $72 million in state and federal funding all came down to a seven-minute train ride on Friday, Sept. 18, that ceremon … (read more)

While I appreciate the Independent’s effort to highlight the grit on display by downtown Middlebury businesses in John Flowers’s Aug. 6 article, “Middlebury shops tough it out,” I take exception to the statement that, “not all downtown stakeholders have t … (read more)

MIDDLEBURY — Downtown Middlebury is taking some uppercuts during its summer-long battle with a once-in-a-lifetime construction project. But those on the front lines — the downtown merchants, residents and shoppers — continue to pick themselves off the can … (read more)

MIDDLEBURY — A “pocket neighborhood” surrounding the former St. Mary’s School off Shannon Street and a reimagined economic development initiative off Bakery Lane are just two concepts for the future of downtown Middlebury as brainstormed by participants a … (read more)

MIDDLEBURY — For the first time in its history, the Better Middlebury Partnership (BMP) is asking for out-of-town donations to help subsidize the special holiday and recreational events — like the annual Spooktacular and WinterFest — that county residents … (read more)

MIDDLEBURY — Both pedestrian and vehicular traffic in downtown Middlebury was slower than usual this week, as work on the $72 million rail bridges replacement project jumped from the train corridor to Main Street. Main Street traffic was relegated to one … (read more)

VERGENNES — Loaves of bread, croissants and pastry were moving steadily off Good Companion Bakery’s table not far from the monument on the Vergennes City Green this past Thursday afternoon. Manning the table was Colin Gray, who said he had been with the F … (read more)